1FIELD:
The subject invention is in the field of head mounted and head worn equipment, including ear muffs, head phones, microphones, spectacles, and apparatus for holding lights for illuminating a work area, as well as combinations of two or more of each item listed.
2PRIOR ART:
The prior art includes a variety of ear muffs, headphones, headphone/microphone combinations, spectacles combined with lights and head mounted holders for lights along with the light. A sampling of the prior art, particularly related to head mounted lights and associated apparatus is shown in the following U.S. Pat. Nos.
______________________________________ 3,249,271 4,462,064 3,634,676 4,631,645 3,665,451 4,718,126 4,797,793 ______________________________________
Under various circumstances of employment, it is necessary for workers to wear ear muffs to protect their ears from an overly noisy environment or to wear headphones for protection from the noise and for communication in spite of the noise. There are occasions when the work being done in such noisy environments is not adequately illuminated and it would be useful to be able to wear head mounted lights as well as the ear covering apparatus. None of the known head worn light apparatus is compatible enough with head worn ear covering apparatus to allow satisfactory wearing of both. Accordingly the prime objective of the subject invention is to provide head worn apparatus which combines ear covering apparatus and lighting apparatus for illuminating a work area. A secondary objective is that the apparatus be compact, i.e. free of projections which could bump or become engaged by objects in the work area in which the invention is used or otherwise interfere with the use of the invention.